Your Digest for Thursday, Jan 11, 2024 04:59 PM


PDB is an ancient disease, claimed to be identified in a Neanderthal skull;

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Blackwater fever is a rare complication of malaria which can be fatal. It is caused by large intravascular haemolysis resulting in haemoglobinuria, anaemia, jaundice and acute kidney injury. Urine is classically black or dark red in colour.The cause of the massive haemolysis is unknown. The treatment is with antimalarials, intravenous fluids and in some cases dialysis. Urinalysis reveals blood which is not seen on microscopy as it is haemoglobinuria.
[!INFO] AKA Bilharziasis
after the name of the disoverer
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[!TIP] Mnemonic for the species:


Spondyloarthritis (SpA)

Inflammatory osteoproliferative lesions in the spine are called syndesmophytes (marginal and non-marginal), and degenerative osteoproliferative lesions are called osteophytes. Syndesmophytes are more vertically oriented than osteophytes.

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Syndesmophyte Osteophyte
Arise from calcification withn ligaments Arise from bone (vertebral bodies)
Seen in inflammatory (spondylo) arthropathies See in Osteoarthritis
Source

[!TIP] Mnemonic: RePsAnkIb

Ankylosing = stiffness or fixation of a joint by disease
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- Advanced cases: fusion of the sacroiliac joints, and bamboo spine. (Gadolinum MRI is more sensitive than Xray at detecting early changes).

Diagnosis

"Plain x-ray of the sacroiliac joints is the most useful investigation in establishing the diagnosis."

The sacroiliac joint is actually a synovial joint with hyaline on the sacral surface and fibrous cartilage on the iliac surface Source.

Bone changes seen in various diseases

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Langerhans cell histiocytosis